


Another Start

by Bookworm1063



Series: CO Countdown 2020 [30]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Carry On Countdown (Simon Snow), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:54:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28299276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bookworm1063/pseuds/Bookworm1063
Summary: Lady Salisbury goes through her attic. Simon questions his future.A potential first 500-ish words of Any Way the Wind Blows.
Series: CO Countdown 2020 [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026988
Kudos: 9
Collections: Carry On Countdown 2020





	Another Start

**Lady Ruth Salisbury**

There’s a trunk of my daughter’s things in the attic that I’ve never had the courage to go through. It’s everything she took with her when she left, after she finished at Watford—clothes, some photos, a few journals. It turned up on my doorstep one day years ago, just after the last phone call I ever had from her.

I’m standing in front of it now. It’s been a while since I was last up here. My knees can’t take the climb up the ladder the way they used to, so I haven’t really looked at this trunk since my son helped me put it here, almost twenty years ago.

I have to look. I have to know.

I open the lid—it’s not locked. I shift through Lucy’s old jeans and shirts. There’s only one dress, buried towards the bottom. I made it for her.

When I see it, I have to stifle a sob.

Lucy’s notebooks are underneath all the clothes. The ink has started to fade, and more than one of them has lost pages, but they’re legible. I pile them all into my arms and start back down the ladder.

I should have gone through these sooner.

Lucy made an entry in her journals almost every day, telling her story. I’m sure the Mage didn’t know what she was doing. He never would have allowed it.

If he wasn’t already dead, I’d find him and kill him myself.

One thing is clear to me, though.

I have to find Simon Snow.

**Simon**

Our plane touches down in London an hour late. Penelope is beside herself.

“Hurry _up_ , you four!” she snaps, even though there’s nothing we can do to make our bags come around faster. Penny’s already got hers, and she’s practically vibrating with impatience.

“They’ll come around when they come around, Bunce,” Baz says. “You could try telling us what the fuck is going on, while we wait.”

“You’ll see.” Penny’s been giving a version of that response the whole way across the Atlantic.

Baz leans forward and drags his suitcase off the conveyer belt. I snatch my backpack. Shep and Agatha are still waiting.

“Leave the bags—” Penny starts to say.

“Absolutely not,” Agatha snaps. “I followed you across an ocean for a crisis I don’t care about. I’m not doing it without clean clothes. There’s yours, Shep.”

Shep and Agatha grab their things, and we start across the airport. Penny’s shoving people out of her way to get to the cab terminal faster, and I stick close behind her.

Baz is right beside me. We haven’t really talked since that argument on the beach. I want to, but I’m not sure what to say to him. I love him, but how can I be enough for him?

“Alright, Snow?” he whispers. I shrug, not looking at him.

The back of his hand bumps against mine, and I let our fingers twist together as we follow Penny outside.


End file.
